Survey of Health Professionals

How do you as a GP advise patients about vitamin D sufficiency and sun exposure? Does your advice vary depending on the time of year? Which patient attributes or health histories may alter the advice you give? University of Otago researchers are interested in knowing how New Zealand GP’s respond to these issues.

CLICK HERE for a PDF copy of the survey

Concurrent Survey of non-professionals

Full results here later

The survey showed over 70 per cent of mothers thought the skin cancer messages made it difficult to understand messages about vitamin D.
"The overwhelming thing that came out is that they want nice, clear messages that are easy to understand. They are very confused and they just don't know what to do about sun exposure."
A deficiency in vitamin D is associated with osteoporosis, some cancers, diabetes and multiple sclerosis among other illnesses.
A re-emergence of childhood rickets in New Zealand has heightened concern about vitamin D deficiency.

See also VitaminDWiki

• Survey finds that Non-Caucasians do not feel that people need sun exposure – July 2012